Here are 79 books that Attention All Shipping fans have personally recommended if you like
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Growing up in Philadelphia, with school and family visits to landmarks like Independence Hall and Betsy Ross’s house, I’ve long been interested in American history. That led me, eventually, to graduate school and my profession as a historian. At the same time, I have greatly enjoyed reading American novelists, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Willa Cather, and James Baldwin, as well as the works of thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and W.E.B. DuBois. The sweet spot combining those two interests has been American intellectual history.
This is my candidate for the Great American Novel. Read it for its storyline and its fascinating chapters on whales. Along the way, you’ll encounter discussions about race, religion, friendship, and the virtuous life.
Some of my students ask, “Why does Melville digress so much?” My response: persist in reading this work. What at first seems extraneous becomes vital. You’ll discover a masterpiece.
Melville's tale of the whaling industry, and one captain's obsession with revenge against the Great White Whale that took his leg. Classics Illustrated tells this wonderful tale in colourful comic strip form, offering an excellent introduction for younger readers. This edition also includes a biography of Herman Melville and study questions, which can be used both in the classroom or at home to further engage the reader in the work at hand.
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
Since spending much of my childhood on the Cornish coast, I’ve been fascinated by the ocean. Fortunately, I get to spend a lot of time at sea these days working as a cruise enrichment speaker! I’ve done 36 cruises so far aboard 15 different ships over the past 8 years. Much as I love visiting ports all around the world, I particularly enjoy a full day at sea with some time to relax and read in. I hope you enjoy your cruise and the books on this list as much as I have!
I found myself reading this exciting murder mystery late into the night and could barely put it down for meals. It’s set in the 1930s on the Queen Mary during a transatlantic voyage.
The book has charming characters and oozes with the glamour of traditional cruising. I found the smart plot intriguing and well-crafted, with a hint of another favorite author of mine, Agatha Christie.
'Charming characters, a cross-Atlantic setting, jazz, cocktails, sex and a brilliant murder mystery. You couldn't ask for more! I loved it' Harriet Tyce
'This is a cracker. A thoroughly absorbing and thought-provoking historical crime novel that oozes glamour' Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Last Act of Love
'An engrossing read' Guardian
'Hare's well-crafted second novel oozes glamour . . . Did someone mention Agatha Christie? Yes, but with the bonus of subtle reflections on race and class' Observer
* * *
London, 1936
Lena Aldridge is wondering if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn't worked…
Since spending much of my childhood on the Cornish coast, I’ve been fascinated by the ocean. Fortunately, I get to spend a lot of time at sea these days working as a cruise enrichment speaker! I’ve done 36 cruises so far aboard 15 different ships over the past 8 years. Much as I love visiting ports all around the world, I particularly enjoy a full day at sea with some time to relax and read in. I hope you enjoy your cruise and the books on this list as much as I have!
I came across this eye-opening book when I started out as a cruise enrichment speaker and sought insight into life on board a ship. It’s written by an ex-crew member and tells his story of a year working on a cruise line.
I’m sure there’s some poetic license taken, and the author’s experience doesn’t match mine, but I found it both fascinating and very funny.
In Cruise Confidential, Brian David Bruns spills the dirt -- or in this case, the dirty water -- on those romantic, fun-filled vacations at sea. His hilarious chronicle of the year he spent working for Carnival Cruise Lines takes readers down into the areas where the crew works and lives, leaving readers gasping with laughter as they're assaulted nonstop with events that range from the absurd to the utterly bizarre. Stewards fighting over food. Cutlery allowances and other nonsensical rules. What the crew calls those onboard (no, it's not "passengers"). And of course, the sex. An abundance of ready, willing,…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
Since spending much of my childhood on the Cornish coast, I’ve been fascinated by the ocean. Fortunately, I get to spend a lot of time at sea these days working as a cruise enrichment speaker! I’ve done 36 cruises so far aboard 15 different ships over the past 8 years. Much as I love visiting ports all around the world, I particularly enjoy a full day at sea with some time to relax and read in. I hope you enjoy your cruise and the books on this list as much as I have!
My final choice is a rollicking 900-page blockbuster for those lazy sea days. I’ve read it three times now and plan to read it again one day. I adore the wonderful love story between Edouard and Helene, even though I know the mind-blowing ending.
The plot spans 35 years and several countries, including the UK, the USA, and France, which are all vividly described. It’s full of secrets, which allowed me to immerse myself in the characters’ lives. Certain locations and scenes stay in my mind after each reading, and I never want to finish and say goodbye to the characters.
One Evening in Paris, Edouard de Chavigny becomes a man obsessed. A wealthy, notorious womanizer, he is captivated by a mysterious young Englishwoman, Helene Craig, and knows that she is the woman he has been searching for all his life.
But Helene is not what she seems. While Edouard offers her wealth, freedom and passion, she must weigh these attractions against the demands of her own secret life and her determination to exact revenge for the destruction of her childhood world.
What neither Helene nor Edouard knows is that their lives are already linked, and that ahead of them lie…
After years dedicated to the hard facts of a newspaper reporter’s life, including a sting covering the police beat, Carmen Radtke has changed her focus to fiction. She’s been fascinated by both history and mystery as long as she can remember and stays dedicated to the truth behind the lie, and the joys of in-depth research. As a repeated emigrant, she is enthralled by voyages into the unknown and the courage (or madness) that takes.
Carolyn Hart is one of those cozy mystery writers who effortlessly reel me into their world. Set Sail for Murder satisfies my longing for travel with its itinerary and the lush vivid descriptions, as well as having an enjoyable mystery at its core. As a former journalist, I’m also a sucker for retired reporters turned sleuth. I read this first on a train, and it made the hours fly by. As soothing as the sound of waves gently lapping a boat.
Though retired newspaper reporter Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, Henrie O to her friends, once turned down a marriage proposal from Jimmy Lennox, he's still one of her most cherished friends. So when he asks for her help on behalf of his wife, world-famous documentary filmmaker Sophia Montgomery, Henrie O reluctantly agrees to join them on a Baltic cruise. Sophia is the stepmother to the now-grown heirs of a great fortune, who are none too happy that she controls their inheritance. But do they really want her dead? Jimmy thinks so, and he wants Henrie O to prove it.
After years dedicated to the hard facts of a newspaper reporter’s life, including a sting covering the police beat, Carmen Radtke has changed her focus to fiction. She’s been fascinated by both history and mystery as long as she can remember and stays dedicated to the truth behind the lie, and the joys of in-depth research. As a repeated emigrant, she is enthralled by voyages into the unknown and the courage (or madness) that takes.
Fast-paced, exciting, with enough twists to keep me reading without a single break – this is one of my all-time favourites by prolific author Alistair MacLean. I found myself chuckling and, in the next instant, holding my breath as the First Officer has to outwit terrorists who have taken over the tramp carrier cum cruise ship “Campari.” But what I enjoy most is the mix of humour and lightheartedness that balance the high octane thrills which are grounded in meticulous research.
A timeless classic of modern-day piracy from the acclaimed master of action and suspense.
Aboard the SS Campari, all is not well.
For Johnny Carter, the Chief Officer, the voyage has already begun badly; but it's only when the Campari sails that evening, after a succession of delays that he realises something is seriously wrong.
A member of the crew is suddenly missing and the stern-to-stern search only serves to increase tension. Then violence erupts and suddenly the whole ship is in danger. Is the Campari a victim of modern day piracy? And what of the strange cargo hidden below…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
Stories of migration journeys and their knock-on impact through the generations are part of my family history. Like Jacques, the key protagonist in Austerlitz, I too wasn’t told the whole story of my family’s past. Stumbling on stories of colonialism, migration, and racism as an adult has opened up an understanding of a very different world to that of my childhood. The books I have recommended are all excellent examples of migration stories and through the use of beautiful prose pack a punch in a ‘velvet glove’.
This really is a gem of a book. The reader is left guessing whether it is a memoir, auto-fiction, or stand-alone fiction. From its deceptively simple beginning, it cleverly deals with so many of life's big issues with a thoughtful lightness of touch. The book is written from the perspective of grown-up Michael, but Ondaatje explores the confusion and frustration of the child who was made to sail halfway around the world to a new home and the subsequent impact the journey has on the adult Michael.
In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy boards a huge liner bound for England - a 'castle that was to cross the sea'. At mealtimes, he is placed at the lowly 'Cat's Table' with an eccentric group of grown-ups and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys become involved in the worlds and stories of the adults around them, tumbling from one adventure and delicious discovery to another, 'bursting all over the place like freed mercury'. And at night, the boys spy…
I am a passionate, long-time collector of Ocean Liner material. I am recognized as a Member of the Board of The Ephemera Society of America, the Board of The Friends of Fort George, the Council of the British Ephemera Society and other historical and collector organizations. I was thrilled to be Recipient of the 2017 Award of Merit by The Ephemera Society of America, I was engaged by The Bodleian Library at Oxford University to author a book which captured some of the highlights of my extensive 60-year collection of Ocean Liner material which has been donated to the University. This book, sold globally, is the result of that work.
This book focuses on the golden era of Transatlantic travel in the Twentieth Century when engines made sail no longer a variable. Ships were larger and accommodation more spacious and opulent. The author is particularly good at describing the details of little-appreciated shipboard life such as gambling and the professional gamblers who fleeced wealthy participants.
A confession—this book was the cornerstone in my appreciation of the history of Transatlantic passenger shipping. First published in 1972, it has been reprinted in both hardcover and softcover many times since. My hardcover edition has a good section of relevant pictures with captions to tie them into the text, and a chart spreadsheet inside the front cover of the lines and their ships through the decades of the century.
Lots of interesting narrative and useful pictures. What’s more to want in a book to be read for pleasure?
Sketches the history of transatlantic liners since the turn of the century, examining their design and innovations as well as their memorable passengers
As an emigrant myself (I left Ireland in the late 1980s), I’ve always been interested in understanding the process of moving from one place to another; of existing in that liminal space between “being here” and “being there.” I spent several years researching the letters and diaries of nineteenth-century Irish migrants for my book, The Coffin Ship, but found the answers led to new questions on how other peoples, in other places, have managed being somewhere between “here” and “there.” These are some of the books that have helped me along that long, emotional journey.
Washington Irving once famously described a long sea voyage as a “blank page in existence.” Stephen Berry’s analysis of James Oglethorpe’s Georgia Expedition, which sailed from England to colonial Georgia in 1735, shows that the opposite was true. Rather than merely serve as the stage on which the human drama of migration played out, the sea voyage was a dynamic actor in the experience itself. Far from land, migrants had time and space to reconsider their views on society, religion, and identity in ways that shaped their new lives in America.
A vivid and revealing portrait of shipboard life as experienced by eighteenth-century migrants from Europe to the New World
In October 1735, James Oglethorpe's Georgia Expedition set sail from London, bound for Georgia. Two hundred and twenty-seven passengers boarded two merchant ships accompanied by a British naval vessel and began a transformative voyage across the Atlantic that would last nearly five months. Chronicling their passage in journals, letters, and other accounts, the migrants described the challenges of physical confinement, the experiences of living closely with people from different regions, religions, and classes, and the multi-faceted character of the ocean itself.…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
I am a coastal geologist with expertise in environmental issues related to coastal geomorphology, marine pollution, and coastal management. With a Ph.D. in Sea Sciences from the Universidad de Cádiz, I have contributed to the scientific community through my research, publication of over 100 scientific articles, and serving as the Editor of two international scientific journals—Ocean & Coastal Management and the Marine Pollution Bulletin. My research focuses on understanding and managing coastal hazards, marine pollution, and the impacts of human activities on coastal and marine ecosystems. Of particular importance in terms of beach safety was my recent co-authorship of the article Integrated Strategies for the Management and Mitigation of Beach Accidents.
This book describes the myriad of hazards possibly impacting blue-water sailors and casual beachcombers. Using real-life examples, Gary explains the natural processes, events, and creatures, why and where they may occur, and what should or shouldn’t concern us to provide a clearer understanding of how oceans behave.
My greatest fear is being caught in a landfalling tsunami; I stayed at a little village near sea level on one of the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand that was destroyed by the Great Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004—timing is everything in life, or hopefully, I would have followed the elephants who headed to high ground before these huge waves came ashore.
Gary’s book covers this great calamity but also explains the more common occurrences and hazards of rip currents, rogue waves, and hurricanes.
The oceans cover 71% of the planet, and pose a myriad of hazards to everyone from blue-water sailors to the casual beachcomber. From rip tides to rogue waves, the possibilities for some water-borne calamity seem endless, but in most cases a deadly outcome can be avoided or at least mitigated by having a better understanding of the risks involved. This book presents cautionary tales of the most dangerous aspects of oceans encounters, including hazardous sea life such as sharks and rays, the power of the tides, and high seas that can engulf an entire fleet of naval vessels. In each…
